KINTAIL SIBLINGS FROM THE NORTH

Having done the South Shiel ridge from the south last summer, we now planned to do the North Shiel ridge from the… anyone?… now, why is it always the same hands showing? …yes, that's right, from the north. With our campervan on the site at Morvich, we could set off from 'home' taking the bikes up Glen Lichd. So, after a short ride up the glen, with bikes stashed beside Glenlicht House, we began the grind up to the east ridge of Sgurr Fhuaran…

…and looking across the glen to Beinn Fhada. For those who like identifying wildlife on the hills, you'll notice that on the flank of Beinn Fhada is a squirrel dragging a parachute.

A nice ridge, broad but breezy….

…leading to Sg
rr Fhuaran. A summit with A View…

Then up on to Sg
rr na Carnach by about 4pm…

Rather than go on and miss the views out to the west, we started looking for a place for Tarpy. Will this do?

If there were enough pixels in that image, you'd be able to see that, with Great Incompetence, I managed to put up the central pole of the tent without putting it through the relevant eyelets. I saw this myself, but sadly only at about 4am, when I was called outside to see why the tent was flapping away like a demented spinnaker.

First, though, there was an evening to enjoy. Tea. I know some people like these little details, so I will happily tantalise their imaginations with Moroccan chicken and rice, white chocolate cardamom mousse, Mull cheddar and oatcakes, washed down by a splash of Edradour. The powers of imagination! In reality what we had was a sachet of Re-go! (chocolate flavour), two Mountain House meals and a Mountain House pud each, brought back to life (and washed down) by new season's stream water. Sorry about the tease but hey, go easy, I have to carry the pack! Actually, we enjoyed all our tucker, dehydrated or not.

After tea we set off for an evening constitutional to the top of Sg
rr na Ciste Duibhe. You can see our Valhalla by the lochan on the ridge.

And on to the summit. This was C's 200th, and should have been a momentous moment of some moment. Trouble was, the Keeper of the List (er, that's me) had miscounted, and at the time we thought this was 199. Oops. East to Cluanie…

South across Glen Shiel…

And we were able to enjoy a fantastic profile of the ridge we had come up from Glen Lichd…

Between Sg
rr na Sgine and The Saddle to Ladhar Bheinn…

And over the sea to…

Back at the tent, and one last view east down into Affric…

After all those riches, the following day felt like a poor do. It wasn't bad, actually, just the light was comparatively flat. Here, for instance, is that view over to Ladhar Bheinn again…

So, back over Sg
rr na Ciste Duibhe and onto Saileag …

Then Sg
rr a' Bhealaich Dheirg and Aonach Meadhoin, before heading down into Coire nan Eun…

Here we met our only other walker of the day, also heading down that way. From a previous visit to this little glen, when we climbed Ciste Dhubh, I was able to warn this guy about the deer fence further down. Here is it, safely negotiated…

And across the peat hags to the stalkers' path back to Glen Lichd. One of the best, and worthy of the best light of the day…

And that final treasure of the trip, the waterfall in the bowl of the Allt Grannda. I wonder, has anyone ever visited the pool above the big fall? However intrepid we might like to think we're being with our ascents in Scotland, the truth is that we're treading in the footsteps of others almost wherever we go on the hills. But perhaps here is an opportunity for a first descent…

Good luck!